A warm welcome to our new subscribers! This is the GAB Gazette, a highlight reel from the world of Guided Autobiography.
In this Newsletter
Announcements: Submissions are closing for the third GAB anthology
Board Updates: Cheryl invited to bring GAB Instructor training to China
Featured GABBER: Guyathri Shukla
Booklist: Annie Hoyer “Looking Back” and Jacqui Letran’s Words of Wisdom for Teens
Affiliated Organization news: your GAB homework could earn you $1,000
the Business of Books: KDP increases rates
Article Roundup: CanvasRebel features two GABBERS, Sheri Kohlmann on the Your Life Your Legacy podcast, and writers guild sends an open letter to AI
Collaboration Opportunities: Feature writer needed for the GAB Gazette
Community Poll: when is your busy season for classes?
Announcements
Submissions close at the end of this month for the third GAB anthology of essays on the aging experience, the guidelines and application are here: https://thebirrencenterforautobiographicalstudies.submittable.com/submit/3b7a33ce-885d-4498-af1a-7e5dd7c4f07f/gab-book-3-the-aging-experience
When you open the link, scroll down to sign in or create a Submittable account.
Board Update
Cheryl Svensson, President of the Birren Center, has been invited to bring GAB training to China for the first time in fourteen years of training GAB instructors.
This news comes on the heels of a New York Times article The Art of Telling Forbidden Stories in China, about the suppression of first-person accounts from Chinese citizens.
Featured GABBER: Gayathri Shukla
Gayathri is a GAB instructor in Canada. After nearly two decades as an engineer in the energy sector, she pivoted to full-time storytelling as a means for helping people uncover their authentic strengths and build cultures of inclusion.
Her biggest challenge will sound familiar to all GAB instructors: finding students! But she says her favorite thing about teaching GAB is “That it highlights the power of storytelling - no matter what differences seem to set us apart, our stories bring us together.”
Her storytelling company is called Campfire Kinship, her podcast is Hearth 2 Heart, and both are fueled by endless cups of CHAI, “the authentic kind with spices like cardamom, cinnamon and ginger.”
You can find Gayathri on LinkedIn, Instagram, and on her website CampfireKinship.com
Booklist
Congratulations to Jacqui Letran for releasing her 31st book this month. Jacqui is an award winning author, nurse practitioner and teen confidence expert who writes self-help books for teens. Her Words of Wisdom for Teens series is available in English and Spanish on Amazon.
Not a recommendation per se, but congratulations to Annie Hoyer, a GAB student who recently self-published her memoir Looking Back: Stories of My Childhood and the People Who Shaped Me. The memoir is not for sale, it is privately published as a family heirloom. Well done, Annie, your family will thank you for generations.
Affiliated Organization News
If you’ve likewise wanted to find a broader use for your GAB homework, we have two opportunities for you.
The National League of American Pen Women is awarding $1000 grants to non-members, women over the age of 35 are encouraged to apply: https://www.nlapw.org/grants/
And Narratively is offering $1000 for original and untold human stories, you can find out more here: narratively.com/p/pitch-us
The Business of Books
Amazon KDP raised it’s rates in June in response to an increase publishing costs. If you have a book published through KDP, you are advised to check your account and raise your rates to account for the increased overhead.
Article Roundup
Canvas Rebel is an online magazine for creative entrepreneurs, and they have featured two members of the GAB community this summer:
Sheri Kohlmann was a guest on the Your Life Your Legacy Podcast recently, that’s definitely worth a listen.
Finally, The Authors Guild, the leading professional organization for writers in the United States, has submitted an open letter to the CEOs of prominent AI companies, including OpenAI, Alphabet, Meta, Stability AI, IBM, and Microsoft. Over ten thousand writers have signed the letter, which calls attention to the inherent injustice of building lucrative generative AI technologies using copyrighted works. You can read the full article here: https://authorsguild.org/news/thousands-sign-authors-guild-letter-calling-on-ai-industry-leaders-to-protect-writers/
Collaboration Opportunities
The Birren Center is looking for a feature writer to interview prominent members of the GAB community. If you have journalistic experience and would like to contribute your talent to the GAB Gazette in this way, please email birrencenter@gmail.com
If you have a collaboration opportunity, send the details to birrencenter@gmail.com and we will include it in the next GAB Gazette.